Operation Rainfall: How a Fan Campaign Saved "Xenoblade Chronicles"
"Xenoblade Chronicles" was never supposed to be released in America. The fact that it still became one of Nintendo's most important RPG series is due to a few stubborn fans, mountains of letters, and a forgotten Amazon product page. The story of Operation Rainfall - 15 years later.
On July 30, the Switch 2 version of "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" will be released. The release itself is only worth a side note. 4K resolution, 60 fps, new cutscenes with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as ... just kidding. It's the usual next-gen upgrade package.
However, the fact that we can even play the game is not a given. The franchise debut had a difficult birth in 2011, was never supposed to be released in America, and only became an RPG hit thanks to a massive community effort, laying the foundation for today's series.
But first things first.
All good things come in threes
To understand why "Xenoblade Chronicles" even exists, you have to go back a good three decades – to a graphic designer at Squaresoft who eventually didn't want to make graphics anymore. Tetsuya Takahashi worked for the "Final Fantasy" corporation since 1990 and, as art director, was responsible for "Final Fantasy VI" and "Chrono Trigger," among others. Takahashi gave the developer its unmistakable visual identity, which was rewarded with a directorial position.
This resulted in "Xenogears" in 1998, a monumental work in terms of storytelling and a textbook example of overflowing ambition – Takahashi blew almost the entire budget in the first half of the game, which is why the second disc is little more than a slideshow. The fact that "Xenogears" still became a cult game underscores how groundbreaking the RPG was. You can read more about the classic in colleague Kevin's declaration of love.
Takahashi left Squaresoft in 1999, founded Monolith Soft, and immediately showed with his first project that he had learned absolutely nothing: "Xenosaga," the spiritual successor to "Xenogears," was supposed to be a six-episode epic, because anything less is apparently a flipbook.
He failed again. After three episodes, it was over, and Monolith Soft's future was uncertain. But not for long: in 2007, Nintendo bought Takahashi's studio and greenlit the first project. "Monado: Beginning of the World" or, as it would later be called: "Xenoblade Chronicles."
A French slip of the tongue
It all started with an indiscretion. About two weeks after E3 2011 – then still the most important video game fair in the world – Nintendo France's marketing manager Mathieu Minel blurted out in an interview with TV channel Nolife. According to Minel, the US version of "Xenoblade Chronicles" was supposed to be announced at the fair. However, Nintendo of America removed the game from the lineup at short notice because a release for the American market was no longer planned.
This only makes limited sense at first, as a release date for Europe had already been set for the same summer and an English translation was already in the bag.
Nintendo itself initially left Minel's statement uncommented, which is why various speculations dominated the discourse. Most of them are nonsense. However, it is conceivable that Nintendo wanted to claim full attention for "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword." Link's new adventure was released in the same year and is the last major in-house title for the outgoing Wii console – there's no need for a second sword-wielder to steal its spotlight.
Fuel for a conspiratorial fire followed shortly after. Minel announced his departure from Nintendo shortly after the interview. To this day, the persistent rumor persists that the Frenchman was fired because he shared internal information with the press. That, too, is nonsense.
Nintendo's lawyers would drag a four-year-old to court if they found out that a marzipan Yoshi was posing on his birthday cake. But they would hardly want to tangle with France's comprehensive employee protection over a trifle.
Minel left Nintendo after twelve years of his own accord, but the internet doesn't care. Hardly anything helps a movement as much as a true martyr.
The ball starts rolling
In the same month, a user named themightyme posted on the IGN forum. In it, he proposed a fan campaign to persuade Nintendo to release "Xenoblade." And, while they're at it: the Mario corporation should also include "The Last Story" and "Pandora's Tower" and make it an RPG hat-trick.
The original post:
"A few of us have already talked about this idea, but no one wanted to take the lead – so I guess I'll at least try. The concept: When TV series were facing cancellation, fan groups managed to change the minds of broadcasters – with physical letters (not emails), sent to the broadcaster, along with gifts representing the cause… In the case of "Veronica Mars," fans sent Mars bars to UPN (…) So let's do the same for these three games.
For this to work, we need to completely flood Nintendo of America – so send letters from as many addresses as possible, get friends on board, and spread the word in every conceivable way."
A core team formed around the idea, driving the campaign forward: they designed visuals in the style of the "Final Fantasy" logos and named the movement "Operation Rainfall" – rain against the RPG drought on the Wii.
They received support from almost all major gaming platforms, from Eurogamer to Destructoid to Joystiq. In addition, Soraya Saga, game designer and wife of "Xenoblade" creator Tetsuya Takahashi, as well as the Mistwalker studio, reacted favorably to the campaign.
The media presence finally forced Nintendo to issue a statement. Albeit a disappointing one: "There are currently no plans to bring the games to America," it said. Operation Rainfall seemed to have failed.
Accomplice Amazon
It was naive from the start to believe that Nintendo would be swayed by a few nice letters. The corporation is not in business out of idealism or pure philanthropy. Mario's beard wax costs money, after all.
So a financial incentive was needed, with Amazon becoming an unexpected accomplice. Users discovered that the old product page for the original working title "Monado: Beginning of the World" was still online. And not only that: the online store was accepting pre-orders for the game.
The news spread, and within two days, "Xenoblade Chronicles" shot from rank 150,000 on the sales charts to number 1, leaving both "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D" and the PS3 bundle for "Call of Duty: Black Ops" in the dust.
Operation Rainfall is back on track.
At least, that's the logical conclusion – Nintendo continued to give fans the cold shoulder: "Xenoblade Chronicles" remained exclusive to Japan and Europe despite obvious interest. The only minimal appeasement came from Reggie "My body is ready" Fils-Aimé, then President and COO of Nintendo of America: they would be watching very closely what happened in Europe.
The turning point and the truth
After several months without significant events, Nintendo surprisingly announced the US version of "Xenoblade Chronicles" in December 2011. Unceremoniously and without a word about Operation Rainfall. The initiators still saw themselves as winners. But is that really true?
The company never commented on it even after the release in April 2012. The only statement that could be considered official came from 2013 and again from Fils-Aimé. In an interview with Siliconera, he said: "I have to be honest – it doesn't influence what we do. We do look at it (…), but it doesn't necessarily influence what we do."
Now everyone can decide for themselves how much to interpret into the two words "not necessarily," but from a corporate perspective, Reggie's statement is plausible.
You don't negotiate with terrorists, and you don't negotiate with nagging video game fans either. If the opinion were to become established that releases can be forced by being annoying enough for long enough, Nintendo would never have a quiet minute again (and we would finally have an officially translated version of "Mother 3").
This is also supported by the fact that Nintendo ultimately only released one of the three campaign games itself. "The Last Story" and "Pandora's Tower" were localized for the US market by publisher Xseed in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Drama, Baby, Drama
The gaming community is often said to have a penchant for drama. And there's certainly some truth to that. In 2018, fans stormed because the puddle water in "Marvel's Spider-Man" didn't look the same in the finished game as it did in the trailer.
A few years earlier, gamers harassed developer Bioware until he added an extended story ending to "Mass Effect 3" via DLC. And Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann received death threats in 2020 for the plot twist in "The Last of Us Part II."
Occasionally, however, something meaningful also emerges when fans come together, show genuine enthusiasm, and make their voices heard. Operation Rainfall is one such case. The campaign celebrates its 15th anniversary this summer. And especially in a time when it feels like no week goes by without bad news reaching us from the industry, it's good to remember that our hobby can also write beautiful stories.
What remains
Nintendo will probably never reveal whether Operation Rainfall was responsible for "Xenoblade Chronicles" being released in the US. However, it is certain that the campaign significantly contributed to the game's success. Media presence and countless forum posts gave the then very niche RPG a visibility that is otherwise exclusively reserved for blockbusters.
Sales figures were accordingly solid: the series debut sold around one million copies worldwide, making a sequel a foregone conclusion. Would that have happened without Operation Rainfall?
"Not necessarily," Reggie said. Fifteen years and a successful series later, that sounds suspiciously like "probably not."
Title image: Monolith Soft/Nintendo
In the early 90s, my older brother gave me his NES with The Legend of Zelda on it. It was the start of an obsession that continues to this day.
Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.
Show all
